Candle manufacture



Patented Nov. 21, 1933 CANDLE MANUFACTURE James Egan, Staten Island, N.Y., and Victor Mills, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignors to The Proc-' ter &Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio No Drawing. Application April 20, 1932 Serial No.606,522

'1 Claims. '(01. 87-21) v Our invention relates to the manufacture ofcandles, and particularly to the manufacture of candles from parafiinmaterials heretofore unavailable for use in such manufacture.

Stearic acid, as it is commercially known, and

as it has been commonly used in the manufacture of candles, is obtainedfrom the saponification of tallow of high melting point, and con tainsan average of approximately 45% stearic acid and 55% palmitic acid.Stearic acid has been used in the manufacture of candles by mixing aboutten parts with about 90 parts of re-. fined paraflin wax. The parafiinwax required for candle manufacture has a melting point of from 128 to138 degrees F.

The manufacture of refined wax for candles has consisted of a grainingoperation in which the crystalline grains separating from the paraffinoil are retained within the plates of a filter press through which thegrained material is passed. The pressing operation results in theretention within the plates of a material which is known as scale, andhas a melting point of from 121 to 127 degrees F. While the scale is awhite product, it is too soft for use except with greatly increasedpercentages of commercial stearic acid. v

The refining process of the paraffin wax suitable for candle manufacturefrom the scale increases the expense of candle manufacture, the pricevariation between 'scale and the refined wax being usually about to perpound.

It is the object of our invention to utilize the less expensive scalefor the manufacture of candles; and in order to secure good grade candlematerial having a fine opaque grain, superior to that obtainable fromcommercial stearic acid, we propose to mixwith the scale the split fattyacids resulting from products formed by hydrogenating natural oilshaving a high content of linolic, oleic or other unsaturated bodies.

In carrying out our process, we hydrogenate a suitable natural oil, suchas cottonseed oil, until it has an iodine value of 5 or lower. Theaverage titre of this hydrogenated product would be around degrees asagainst a variation of from 54 to 57 degrees for the best grade stearicacid.

After the oil is hydrogenated, the fatty material may .be split by anywell known splitting process, such as the autoclave process, or thatsuggested by Twitchell or Petroff. The splittin process, as is wellknown, hydrolizes the fatty material and permits the glycerine toseparate from the fatty acids.

The fatty acid recovered by this process is then distilled. It will havea stearic acid content of around 75%, and in admixture with commercialscale, candle material is formed which has a very fine grain and adetermined resistance against cracking.

In order to explain the advantages of the use of our process over whathad previously been suggested, we have in the first instance the use ofa. paraffin product having softer physical characteristics and beingless expensive in admixture with a split hydrogenated oil in which muchless of the split hydrogenated oil is required to give the candlematerial a desired grain and resistance to cracking because of the muchhigher percentage of stearic acid present in the split hydrogenated oil.A further economy may be noted because the cost of preparation'of thestearic acid from hydrogenated oil is materially less than the cost ofpreparing stearic acid by the old well known tallow saponificationprocess.

It should be understood that the percentage ofthe stearic acid, eithercommercial grade or synthetically produced, to be used with the parafiinwax may be varied to suit climatic conditions and the size of thecandles to be made. We might state that as a specific example that from5% to 10% of the split distilled fatty acid recovered .from hydrogenatedoil can be satisfactorily used with 95% of scale. We may increase theproportion of the synthetic stearic acid however to as high as 50%.

While the use of split hydrogenated fatshas been suggested in the past,as far as we know the use of this split hydrogenated product has beenmerely suggested as a substitute for commercial stearic acid and notbecause its use would permit the use of a paraflin product which wasmaterially cheaper in price.

If the candles are to be artificially colored, and

' if the candle stock is not to be the purest white,

which the stearic acid content is considerably higher than the 45%normally occurring in commercial stearic acid, said stearic acid contentbeing substantially in excess of 3. The art of candle manufacture whichcomprises admixing with paraflin scale a proportion of the split fattyacid from a hydrogenated oil in which the stearic acid content isconsiderably higher than the 45% normally occurring in commercialstearic acid, said stearic acid content being substantially in excess of65%, and the percentage of said split fatty acid varying from 5 to 50%in the mixture.

4. The art of candle manufacture which comprises using from to of paramnscale admixed with from 5 to 10% of a hydrogenated product having astearic acid content of substantially in excess of 65%.

